CBS CEO: Advertising Prices Up 30% From Upfront Levels

Prices in the broadcast television advertising market are up 30% from where they were two months ago, when networks and advertisers negotiated large deals in advance of the new programming season that began this week, CBS Corp. (CBS) Chief Executive Les Moonves said Wednesday.

At an investor conference in New York City, Moonves noted that prices have moved higher during nine of the last 10 TV seasons, and he expressed surprise that some advertisers hold out in hopes of lower prices despite that track record.

Moonves also said he expects his company's local TV advertising to be higher next year than this year, despite the lack of political ad dollars, which are expected to be strong in the second-half of this year due to the midterm congressional elections in November.

Meanwhile, Moonves said he is pleased with CBS's decisions to pass on some high-profile Internet distribution deals with the likes of Hulu LLC--a streaming video site jointly owned by NBC Universal, Walt Disney Co. (DIS) and News Corp. (NWSA, NWS)--and Apple Inc. (AAPL). He said there is little benefit to being an early entrant in such deals, and CBS is taking its time to evaluate the businesses and see how they could affect their other lines of business.

News Corp. owns Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires.

Moonves said he has heard that some participants in Hulu regret their involvement in the venture.

"We're looking at Hulu Plus," he said, referring to Hulu's recently launched subscription offering. He added that Hulu Plus is a more attractive business model for CBS, which has been shifting its business to collect more subscription revenue.

Moonves said his company is also closely monitoring Netflix Inc. (NFLX), adding that the company has made some attractive deals with media companies for their content.

He left open the possibility that talks with Apple could resume in the near future.

-By Nat Worden, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2472; nat.worden@dowjones.com

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